12 May 2008 Backwards Compatible - Power Ups

Whether it’s a growth-inducing fungus or a dose of anti-poltergeist medication, power-ups have been a part of videogame history for as long as most of us can remember – so much so that it’s hard to say when and where these power-boosters first appeared.

It’s a tough call, but we think the power-up revolution may have started with none other than that lovably round, yellow, pill-popping phasmophobe – Pacman.

When it was released in mid-1980, Pacman was unlike any other game the world had ever seen. While most arcade games of the era were concerned with shooting down invaders from the far-flung reaches of space, Pacman instead put you into a claustrophobic maze, set a gang of mischievous ghosts on your trail and tasked you with chowing down on everything you could get your mouth around.

Including power pellets, Power Pellets were a temporary but powerful weapon in Pacman’s eternal quest against Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde – allowing him to devour the ghostly quartet with gusto and earn you big points while he was at it.

One year later and perhaps the second most important development in gaming power-ups makes its debut.

Donkey Kong was the game, and Mario’s mallet was the power-up. As you climbed the steel girders to rescue a familiar kidnapped princess, the mallet provided temporary protection from the endless stream of barrels and fireballs attempting to thwart your assent. It was a useful tool, not just for staying alive, but also for racking up huge point scores.

The next big development in power-up technology was made in the shoot-em-up genre – with a little-known game called Vulgus.

Setting down in early 1984, Capcom’s Vulgus was a vertically-scrolling sci-fi shooter that had you blasting alien scum with the help of a number of “POW” shaped power-ups that increased the potency of your pews. Pew pew!

Today Vulgus isn’t as well known as it should be and it’s probably because of 1942.

Soon after Vulgus came out, Capcom released another vertical shooter – the World War II-themed 1942. Not only was it a lot more fun than Vulgus, but it also had much more impressive power-ups. After collecting a few POWS, you tiny dogfighter could outgun practically anything that was thrown at it, although the game was still exceptionally hard.

After Vulgus and 1942, any shooting game that didn’t have power-ups immediately became obsolete, and within months a new breed of power-up fuelled shooting games began to flood arcades and home consoles.

Konami’s Gradius is probably the most well-known example of these. Releasing in 1985, Gradius was notable not only for its stunning array of powered-up weaponry, but also because it allowed the player to store collected power-ups and to choose which ones to deploy at any time.

Meanwhile, Power-ups also became prerequisite for other genres as well. After pioneering power-ups in Donkey Kong, for example, Mario was at it again in the Super Mario Brothers series – producing some of the most memorable of all gaming power-ups.

Throughout Mario’s adventures he discovered the rapid-growth qualities of mushrooms, the warming embers of the fireflower and he even discovered that Raccoon tails can make you fly. Who would have guessed?

Another Nintendo classic that revelled in power-ups was Metroid. In order to get anywhere in Metroid you had to collect a variety of power-ups that enhanced your bounty-hunting heroine’s space suit – like ice beams, super-jumps and screw-attacks. Only these power-ups weren’t temporary – they stuck with you right to the end of the game – a unique feature when the game debuted in 1985.

These days power-ups can still be found in many different forms. Probably the most traditional use of the power-up appears in the recent Super Mario Galaxy, where the princess protecting plumber can fly, turn into a bouncing spring or even a bumblebee to help make his way through the cosmos.

But on the whole, temporary power-ups are slowly becoming a thing of the past, in favour of unlockable abilities that stick around for good once you’ve earned them.

Games like Crackdown reward you with superhuman agility and weaponry as you progress through the game, while games like Bioshock offer you power-ups on tap, as long as you’ve stored up enough ammo to fuel them.

Whatever form they’re in though, power-ups are one of the things that have made gaming great – and as the industry continues to evolve – we have a feeling that mushrooms, Pac-pellets and pew-improving pow blocks will have a long and bright future ahead of them.